Using WordPress as a Website Builder

Why is WordPress the best Website Builder

You’ve probably had a CMS like Joomla or Drupal recommended to you – but have you ever managed a massive site with either? If so, you’ve probably seen the server struggle with Joomla’s rat’s nest of code. As for Drupal: unless you have oodles of time to learn how to be a developer (which I doubt you do, if you’re reading this), you’re either stuck with hiring a developer, or spending the majority of your time NOT making money or writing content — but learning how to program and tweak code. Either way: if you heavily modify either CMS, you’ll be having plenty of fun when it’s time to upgrade to a newer version.

Remember, the virtues of being a webmaster / web site owner are:

1. To make things easy on yourself right now
2. To make things easy on yourself in the long-run
3. To go the route that has the most expandability

The viable solution is WordPress. It’s NOT a blogging platform. It’s a Web 2.0 CMS – and here’s why – complete design reliance on CSS, super stable & bug-free framework, an admin panel made for dummies, all the free plugins you can eat, and a simple thems system that doesn’t use annoying programming languages like SMARTY. What you have here is potential for extreme greatness!

• It actually works: It’s always nice to know that your website won’t unexpectedly greet you with a page of error code for no reason.
• Easy to use: WordPress gives you a simple yet ample way to create new pages, posts and categories – and manage them later. It’s easy enough for the beginner, and robust enough for the hardcore website modifier. You don’t need an IT degree to use it!
• Cost effective: A fully-functional WordPress site, with numerous plugins and a theme, can be created for a grand total of $0.00 – and still out-perform other CMS’s with premium plugins and custom web development work.
• Quick Loading: WordPress is as clean as a whistle, in terms of its hard coding. Only the necessities are in its framework – whatever else you put into it is up to you. To back that up is a logical reliance on CSS for site themes, and you have a site that puts minimal strain on your server, no matter how big your site gets!
• Search engine friendly: You get to choose how your URL’s look – name your categories and pages accordingly, and benefit as search engines reward you for doing so! Laugh as your competitors suffer with their CMS’s dynamic URL structure. Link your pages together with tags, and you have an advanced internal linking hierarchy in place.
• Advertising possibilities: They’re unlimited with WordPress – especially with the plugin Adsense Deluxe. The bulk of your advertising success depends on ad placement (as seen on this handy heat map), as well as the WordPress theme you choose – which should be optimized for the most effective yet unobtrusive ad placement (the dark red and orange regions are the places where ads are most effective!)
• Easy to Theme: Buy or download a theme and drop it into your /wp-themes folder… then activate, and you’re done! It really is that simple. When it comes to editing a theme, dropping something in or commenting it out from a theme file (header, footer, sidebar, etc) is super easy with the Theme Editor menu. Remember, WordPress uses CSS in its theme structure – it is as easy to learn and use as HTML was in the 90s!
• Lots of Plugins to Choose From: WordPress has them all – literally. Think of a plugin, and there’s a 99% chance it exists, and exceeds your expectations.
• Modern-day technology: Enjoy your out-of-the-box RSS feed capabilities and get your site integrated with Feedburner.com, so that your visitors can keep coming back for more, in style. Make things easier to find with built-in tags and categories capabilities.
• It gets updated: Unlike other dev teams that take months (or more than a year!) to update their software, WordPress is updated regularly. Bugs and vulnerabilities take extreme precedence and are patched up immediately.
• Expandable [for the future]: WordPress isn’t going anywhere…except upward! It’s the most “safe” platform you can choose, as its developers are not a bunch of kids working in some basement only to disappear someday, but an actual, reputable company with funding behind it. The Forums are going strong, and you can get WordPress help on virtually any message board for webmasters.

Ok, so what now?? Using WordPress as a Website Builder

So, you’ve decided to take the path and try out WordPress as a CMS – a good decision Before you begin, you’ll need a few things: First of all, a domain name, which is where your site will point to (even if it’s just temporary). We recommend purchasing your domain name from Godaddy.com because their cheap and they provide excellent phone support.

Secondly, you’ll need a hosting account, which is where your site will reside. WordPress requiresthat your hosting account must have PHP and MySQL installed.  314media can provide web hosting for your new blog, just contact us for affordable rates on WordPress web hosting.

Obviously, you’ll also need your free copy of WordPress, which will be installed within your server account, and will have a domain name pointing to it. A WordPress theme: they come in both free and premium (aka “not free”) versions. Go with free themes if you want to test things out and learn how to modify. When you’re ready to be serious about your site,contact 314media for a custom theme for their optimized CSS stylesheets and expandability.

For more information  or to get started publishing your own content and managing your own website, contact the WordPress website builders at 314media.com today!